Tech giant Intel to lay off hundreds more from Folsom campus
FOLSOM — Silicon Valley's Intel announced it will begin a new round of layoffs from its Folsom campus in November.
Folsom, which is just east of Sacramento, is one of the fastest-growing California cities, and tech jobs are a big reason for it.
Amid the population growth, the city's biggest employer is shrinking, with Intel announcing 272 job cuts starting next month.
Sanjay Varshney, a finance professor at Sacramento State, sees the tech company's retraction as troubling for Folsom despite its growth.
"It's huge," Varshney said. "Still, it is the anchor technology firm that we see not just anchoring Folsom but I will say the Greater Sacramento region."
Varshney said the tech firm serving as an anchor for the region "also changed the political fabric" of Folsom.
With remote work bringing an influx of transplants from the San Francisco Bay Area, Folsom's political demographic changed fast from red to blue.
In 2020, the city had 16,000 registered Democrats to 17,000 registered Republicans. Folsom suddenly now has 18,000 registered Democrats to 17,000 Republicans.
Varshney said the reverse can happen.
"So with these layoffs, for example, and technology workers being required to be back in the office for more days of the week, we are seeing the change again in that the pendulum is swinging," he said.
Intels's layoffs are set to go into effect on November 15.